Devonte Hynes

Based on probability alone, most people are bad for you. The problem is my generation is so antisocial that they cling to any semblance of familiarity. Familiarity, oftentimes, is also bad for you. This mixtape documents that internal struggle between the comfort of familiarity and the drab of routine. I miss new feelings. In order to experience newness, you first have to acknowledge how damn easy it is to be sucked into unhealthy but familiar tendencies, and then you have to fight those urges. Progress comes from the fight for novelty.

On a different note, “Vic Mensa sang beautifully on a Kanye West song” is not a thought I ever imagined I’d have. But on “Wolves” Vic croons, “I’m just bad (bad, bad) for you,” and it’s the most affecting part of the song (along with the haunting sounds that follow his verse). This mixtape is in part an ode to the perfection of that song. It’s my attempt to channel the same energy of “Wolves” into an entire mixtape that doesn’t include the song itself.

By the way, this is the 40th Tape Tuesday. We actually celebrated the anniversary a few weeks ago and a lot of celebrities came out to support. Check out the footage from that here.

College is a bizarre place. It is not like the actual world. It is this vacuum of constant intoxication and twisted idealism. Going to classes on a campus is weird as hell. School is the only time all of these individuals will be grouped together like this–packed into classrooms like sardines, awkwardly sweating next to your potential future wife. As much as college is about the whole higher education thing, it is also about forced socialization. You choose a major and a concentration and voilà, like robots or young wizards, you are sorted with kids with whom you share similar interests. You’ll spend years going to the same classes as these kids–some of them you will know and become friends with and others you will recognize but never really talk to. Anyway, I’m not about to start naming names like iLoveMakonnen, but there’s this girl in my major that has a boyfriend but spends more time with me and got me in this terrible thing where I don’t care what happens, it’s just awesome hanging out with her. I know. It’s disgusting.

The name “Waves” came way before I found the song “Waves” by the incredible Aussie artist Japanese Wallpaper. I was reading about Jackson Sonnanfeld-Arden’s philosophy (introduced to me by Deru) about these Nine Pure Tones, or waves, that serve as the basis of all life and existence. It was a riveting read that has since been taken down from the Internet, and it was just crazy enough to sort of blow my mind and maybe influence my entire life.

You hear about how we’re the most informed generation, but how much of that information are we actually implementing in our behavior? Are we constantly having our behaviors and ideas reaffirmed by seeking comfort in niche sections of the Internet, which monitor our searches to customize the ads we see–only further reaffirming our behaviors? Or are we seeking and interpreting new ideas and incorporating them into our ever-changing social dynamics?

So these have been my thoughts and questions the past two months. You can see how “waves” could work as a metaphor for the ebb and flow of life. And the philosophy takes it like a zillion steps further by defining all science and behaviors in nine different waves. So yeah, um, that was the idea for the mixtape. Also, I just wanted to make your soundtrack for the beginning of summer.

She wears my favorite color, everyday in her eyes…

*Not including track 16 (“Berlin” by Highlands) and track 20 (“Mad at Me” by Sage The Gemini).

It’s been a minute since I’ve been able to give yall some new Theophilus London material, but I’m glad the time has come. Theophilus is an innovator – he likes to break boundaries and throw surprises at people. He may not quite be a common name yet to some people, but he definitely should be.

Speaking of common names, a Knowles girl is on this track. Solange is Beyonce’s younger sister, and it couldn’t make me happier that she has taken a track quite different than her big sister’s. It’s hard living in the shadow of who was first the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, then became the one and only Beyonce, and now the wife of Jay-Z. It seems, though, that Solange is doing the right thing by hopping onto a more indie music track. There aren’t too many successful cases that I can think of where an underdog relative can match the power of the other. Miley Cyrus after her dad’s fame? Meh. Janet Jackson? That doesn’t really count, I don’t think, since they all started at the same point. I guess one way you could go about it would be to flash your ninnies at the Superbowl, but like…nobody would do that, right? No, never!